The soldiers that manned the small boats were nearly as slightly clad as the rowers; they carried poignards in their girdles, and were armed with axes and staves pointed at both ends, in the use of which the Egyptians are notoriously skilful. Although all appeared in considerable commotion, not one of the vessels made any attempt to advance, and there seemed a general state of expectation.
The solution of all this was soon apparent. A large boat was seen to detach itself from the general mass, and make its way down-stream towards us. Eight rowers stood paddling on the raised bow and stern; twelve soldiers, with square plates of bronze strapped on their breasts, and armed with lances, daggers, and short scimitars, were in the middle; and amongst them was an Egyptian officer of high rank. He was arrayed in two tunics of striped gauze, crossed one over the other upon his breast; a girdle ornamented with enamel plates was round his waist, and a large gold and enamelled bird with outstretched wings was suspended by a gold chain from his neck. His head was covered with a tall cap, bearing an enamel plate inscribed with the name of Pharaoh in hieroglyphics; his beard was enclosed in a casing of red cloth; and in his hand was a gilt battle-axe, elaborately inlaid with figures of animals and other symbols. On one side of this sumptuous personage was a closely-shorn priest or scribe, habited entirely in white, and holding an inkhorn and some papyrus in his hand; on the other, in full Syrian armour, was our old friend Hazael. I could not resist a smile as I caught sight of a pile of chains and manacles lying in the boat.
On the Egyptian officer shouting that he wanted to come on board and speak to me, I gave permission for his boat to come alongside the Ashtoreth, and, followed by his scribe and five of the soldiers, with the greatest arrogance he stepped on deck. Hazael had the discretion to remain behind, where he was. I received the magnate with all courtesy, and saluted him after the fashion of his own country, but instead of acknowledging it in any way, he began with the most overbearing insolence to exclaim:
"Down, down, you Phœnician thieves, and sue for Pharaoh's mercy!"
Finding that such was the tone he took, I answered sternly:
"No thieves are we, nor have we injured Pharaoh; so far from imploring Pharaoh's mercy, we have a right to demand Pharaoh's protection."
"Out upon your falsehoods!" retorted the enraged Egyptian; "have you not this very night been attempting your escape?"
"No," I said emphatically; "we were cut adrift. The real thieves are amongst you. That rascal Bodmilcar and that vile eunuch stole the royal letters that they brought to you."
"Silence!" shouted the Egyptian in impetuous fury; "too well we understand your frauds. Out with your hands! the handcuffs are ready here, and you and the slave that you have stolen must come along to Pharaoh. Never fear but ample justice shall be done!"
The scribe was opening his inkhorn for the purpose of taking down our names, when I burst out into a roar of laughter.
"Do you take us for fools?" I said; "why on earth should we leave our ships to go and hear a slanderous catalogue of lies alleged against us? No, no, sire, we remain where we are."
The Egyptian literally stamped with rage. "Villains! pirates! thieves!" he cried; "every one of you shall die a death of torment."
Throughout this interview I had taken care never for a moment to lose sight of the fleet above-stream; and seeing that the ships were now in motion, without paying the least regard to the continued ravings of the grand official, I ordered my trumpeter to sound an alarm. The Egyptian, followed closely by his scribe, hurried towards his boat; his soldiers, to cover his retreat, rapidly crossed their lances. Chamai, Hannibal, and Hanno, mistaking the movement, and supposing they were making an attack on me, fell upon them with drawn swords; and the huge Jonah, throwing down his trumpet, rushed into the fray, and wresting a lance from one of the soldiers' hands, took him by the shoulders and dashed his head twice or thrice against the side of the ship. It is a popular belief that the Egyptians are a hard-headed race, but I avow that this fellow's skull cracked like a ripe water-melon.
Meanwhile, Hannibal had cut the throat of another of the soldiers, and Chamai had plunged his sword into the body of a third. I was struggling to wrench the lance from the grasp of a fourth, when taking alarm at the number of my men, he turned about, and following the example of his sole remaining comrade, sprang overboard and swam like a frog. But they were not to escape so easily; Bichri, who was standing near the wale of the vessel, hit one of them with an arrow, and the rowers stunned the other by blows with their oars. Thus the whole five were entirely disposed of; but the real conflict was yet to come.
As soon as the Egyptians were aware of the fray, one of their galleys from the right bank drew rapidly towards us, and the whole bevy of small boats that had gathered round kept up a continuous flight of arrows, every one of which, however, either stuck in the ship's side or went whistling over our heads.
A single glance was sufficient to reveal to me the enemy's tactics. Just as I had anticipated, the Melkarth was being towed down the stream towards the right, obviously with the design to pass us and get below, so as to cut off our retreat. Their immediate design was to divert our attention from this manœuvre, and for this purpose two large ships were ordered to bear down upon us, and a flotilla of small boats was sent to keep up a storm of arrows. Hannibal immediately, by my directions, set his catapults to work, and a volley of stones and pots full of pitch and sulphur was discharged, right over the Cabiros, on to the approaching vessels. I then ordered the Cabiros and the Dagon to move simultaneously, right and left of me, but in opposite directions: the Cabiros northwards towards the galleys that were obstructing our way, the Dagon straight down upon the boat that was towing the Melkarth. I could see Bodmilcar upon the prow of the great gaoul, wildly endeavouring to make the Egyptians understand their danger, and urging the rowers to get their oars into the water; but he was too late. Our movements had taken them completely by surprise. The Dagon, cutting her way full speed through the crowd of small boats, crushed or capsized all that came in her course; the Ashtoreth, liberated by the departure of the Cabiros, effectually kept in check the ships that were trying to pass down the stream; and the Cabiros, that had gone northward, by sending out a number of fire-floats that drifted on in advance, completely discomfited the two galleys that were guarding the mouth of the river.
Our tactics were a perfect success. One of the Egyptian ships was run into by the Ashtoreth with such violence that it was cut asunder, and sank immediately; and the other, harassed by the pots of combustibles, and alarmed at the eddy caused by the foundering of its consort, purposely ran aground. The Dagon, after staving in the towing-boat like a piece of rotten wood, had returned to me; and as we had the satisfaction of seeing Bodmilcar's crew cut their tow-rope, we both turned our attention to the galley which was retiring from the attack and falling back upon the Melkarth. Simultaneously passing it quite close, one on each side, we swept off both its tiers of oars, and hurling down upon it a final shower of arrows, we filed off to join the Cabiros, which was still engaged in discharging its missiles and fire-floats at the other two galleys.
The contest had been sharp but short. In less than an hour we had rendered the Melkarth incapable of action; had sunk two Egyptian vessels; had sent a third aground; and had crushed or capsized at least fifteen small boats.
The surface of the water was covered with the débris, and not a few men could be seen drifting along in the current. Thrown into utter confusion by our unlooked-for attack, the rest of the Egyptian vessels floundered about in each others' way, and totally prevented the Melkarth from obtaining another tug-boat. Finding, therefore, that those need give me no concern, I gave my attention to the galleys in front, and sent adrift a dozen or more fire-floats, which the crew of the Cabiros sent down-stream with their boathooks. The galleys gave way; and, feeling that there was no immediate impediment, I proceeded towards them calmly to the north, leaving our assailants confounded by their disaster, and Bodmilcar raving furiously on the poop of his helpless ship. Bichri lamented that he could not let fly an arrow at him, but it was utterly useless, as we were already too far away.
"A drawn battle!" said the brave archer, coming forward from the stern.
"Yes," said I; "the rascal has had bad luck this morning; but he will watch his opportunity. We haven't done with each other yet."
"I hope not," said Hanno, vindictively.
Presently there was a movement among the Egyptian ships, and three of them, having extricated themselves from the maze of confusion, had commenced a pursuit of us, accompanied by a number of little boats. At the same moment I espied a troop of horsemen galloping along the shore; and raising my eyes to the causeway on the top of the dyke, I observed a cloud of dust, from the midst of which broke ever and again the gleam of a row of bronze and gilded chariots. There was no room for doubt; evidently the King himself was approaching with the intention of being a witness of our capture.
But the mighty Pharaoh had come too late!
Out of forty or fifty fire-ships which we had set afloat, two at last had run foul of one of the galleys, which was now in flames, and the terrified crew were fain to resort to the usual naval manœuvre of the Egyptians, and run their ship aground. The vessels that had started in pursuit of us were still at least two stadia in our rear, so that we had ample time to tackle with the single galley that remained ahead to bar our progress.
"Board her! board her! Let us board her!" shouted Hannibal, Hanno, and Chamai, with unanimous accord.
"We have no time, and she's not worth the trouble," I replied; "we will sink her."
"Down she goes, then, like a stone," cried Himilco.
The Cabiros, without meeting with any resistance beyond a few chance stones and straggling arrows, now slipped quietly under the very prow of the galley, and with unfurled sail was making off to sea. The Dagon was about to follow her, but at a signal from me, Hasdrubal bore down upon the galley's stern, whilst I simultaneously drove straight against her flank, and between us we literally cut her in two. Down sank the galley in a whirlpool of foam; and our last obstacle being thus removed, we hoisted our sails and rode out to sea, our trumpets sounding out a flourish of victory.
Behind us rose a discordant howl of maledictions. We were out of reach. It was utterly impossible for our enemies in their little nut-shells of vessels to follow where our victorious prows were now cleaving the foamy billows; and when we were fairly out at sea, steering due west, I could see, as I looked along the low flat coast, that the Egyptian masts were quite motionless. It was evident, therefore, that Bodmilcar had advised them to abandon their pursuit.
Fifteen of our men were wounded, nearly all of them slightly, and two had been killed; whilst the loss of the enemy, including those slain by the archers, burnt by the fire-ships, or drowned by the waters of their own sacred Nile, must have been nearly three hundred.
It did not take long to repair whatever damage we had sustained. Some broken oars on board the Ashtoreth, and a few more on board the Dagon, were replaced from the reserves; the decks were washed down, the stays strengthened, some broken ropes spliced, and the arrows that had lodged in the rigging and ship's sides removed. All our wounded had been carried below; and the bodies of the three Egyptians, having been stripped of any spoil of value, were thrown overboard. The bodies of our own two men were also committed to the waves with an invocation on their behalf to Menath, Hokk, and Rhadamath, the judges of the infernal regions30. In less than three hours everything was as much in order as though nothing had happened. Chryseis and Abigail, who had all along rendered what assistance they could, were rejoicing in their freedom; Hanno, whose nerve had never failed him, and Chamai fully sharing in their delight.
I sent for Hasdrubal to come on board, that he might join Himilco and myself in a council of war. When we were alone together, I said:
"Listen to me. There is no shadow of doubt that we shall be pursued. Ascending the eastern outlet of the river, the Egyptians will come down by the western; they may come either by the Canopic or Phanitic branch; and at both Pharos and Canope there is no question but that the King has ships in readiness. They can anticipate us there; couriers by land can arrive by early morning; we, with our utmost speed, could not arrive till long beyond midday. Somewhere or other we must of necessity put in to shore again; our supply of water is all but gone."
To Himilco's suggestion that we had wine enough to meet our need, I vouchsafed no other reply than a shrug of the shoulders, and continued:
"My intention was to take in a fresh supply this very evening, but this skirmish has frustrated everything. Go ashore we must; and this is the scheme that I propose; we will re-enter the river by the Sebennitic mouth, which is nearest to us now; they will never suspect us of venturing on land so soon; probably they will not be there at all; if they are, we must use main force; but water we must have."
My companions approved my plan, but expressed their anxiety as to what was to happen afterwards.
"I do not think," I said, "that because we have lost the gaoul that we need at all contemplate abandoning our expedition. Failing to find us at either Canope or Pharos, the Egyptians will watch for us all along the coast; and at last Bodmilcar, who knows our destination, will get reinforcements from Pharaoh and will chase us right on to Tarshish. Sooner or later we shall be pretty sure of falling in with him; but for the present, at least, we can elude him thoroughly. Here is my project. The wind is north-east and favourable; by steering by the sun in the daytime, and by keeping the Cabiros a little to our left at night, I do not fear but that in five days at most we might reach the shores of the great island, Crete."
Himilco and Hasdrubal stared at me in mingled admiration and surprise.
"From Egypt to Crete! Across the open sea! An unheard-of thing! Can it be possible?"
Such were the exclamations with which they heard my proposition.
"Aye, harder things than that may be done," I continued; "the wind isn't likely to change till next new moon; but even should it change and we happen to miss Crete, we shall only run upon the mainland, or on one of the islands of the Archipelago. Thence we can get round Cape Malea to Sicily, from Sicily to Carthage, from Carthage direct to Tarshish. That's our course, now."
"By our goddess Ashtoreth, your scheme is beautiful!" cried Hannibal; "and meanwhile the Egyptian rascals will be floundering about the Syrtes."
"And rough enough they'll find them," said Himilco. "I was well-nigh drowned there two years back; and let us hope that Bodmilcar and his Tyrian sneaks, bad luck to them! may come to grief. How I should like to hang them all like a string of fishes, fastened by their gills!"
We were not long in reaching the little town of Sebennys. The Cabiros was first sent ashore, and returned with the tidings that all was quiet. I paid the customary dues to the Egyptian governor of the place, and despatched a number of our sailors to procure the requisite supply of water; they took the opportunity of purchasing several baskets of onions and some good fresh meat. Before the end of the day we had turned our backs upon the land, and were making our venturous way north-west.
"And now, for our dishes and platters," I cried; "I am frightfully hungry."
We seated ourselves in the stern, and joined by Chryseis and Abigail, we formed a large and merry group. The sailors and soldiers all were served with a ration of wine in honour of the morning's victory.
"I see we have changed our course," said Hanno; "are we making for Crete?"
"Yes," I replied; and added that I supposed it was a place already known to the fair Chryseis.
Chamai inquired whether it was not the same as Chittim.
"No, not the same," I answered; "this island is full of mountains, upon which are goats with spreading horns like those of Arabia; the people are famous for their skill as archers."
"Bichri, then, may find his match," said Chamai. "But to what nation do they belong?"
"They are Phrygians and Dorians," I told him; "fair, tall men, with handsome faces and well-formed limbs; they have built towns in which some of our Sidonian merchants have recently settled, getting there by way of Chittim and Rhodes. Chryseis speaks the same language as the Dorians."
Chamai, ever full of interest in Chryseis, expressed his pleasure at hearing that she was about to go amongst a people kindred to herself, and was inquiring whether they were a martial race, when Chryseis interposed, and with Hanno's assistance explained that the Dorians, like the Ionians of the Isles, and the Achaians on the mainland, were renowned warriors, and that the fame of their conquests had spread far and wide.
"How large, how vast the world must be!" exclaimed Hannibal; "here is a people, famed in war, whose very name I scarcely know. But is it not from Crete that we get our Chalcidian swords?"
Smiling at his mistake, I made him understand that Chalcidian swords were made of copper from the island of Chalcis, and that the Phœnicians could not elsewhere procure copper that would take so fine a temper.
Hannibal went on to ask Hanno to inquire of Chryseis what were the military tactics of the Ionians, and how they paid their soldiers.
"Do you expect us women to know such things as these?" asked Abigail, with a merry laugh; "a woman knows well enough that her countrymen can fight, and she knows how to prize the spoils they bring her from the battle-field; but what can she know of the art of war?"
Chryseis seemed amused at her maid's vivacity, and proceeded to enumerate the most illustrious military leaders of her land. I heard her name Achilles, and Ajax, and a certain king called Agamemnon; and I understood her to relate that two kings in her country, named Jason and Ulysses, were renowned for the voyages they had made.
"Voyages!" cried Himilco, scornfully; "I can guess what their voyages were: creeping along and hugging the shore; making perhaps a stadium a day; never looking at a star. And then, what ships they had! I am glad I haven't to trust myself in one of them from Sidon to Chittim."
Chryseis owned that, as to ships, she had never seen anything in her own country that could be compared to the ships of the Phœnicians, adding that she thought that the mariners of Phœnicia must be true sea-gods.
"And you must be their goddess," said Hanno, with enthusiasm.
"Ah, young man," yawned out Hannibal, "you should put your fine speeches in Ionian; the lady does not understand you."
The lady, however, bent her head gracefully, and raised a laugh by saying in good Phœnician that she perfectly understood what had passed.
"Trust a woman for understanding a compliment," was Hannibal's remark.
"I should like to see the effect," said Himilco, "of one of Hanno's pretty speeches upon Gisgo's wife; her Celtic dialect is something like the croaking of Bodmilcar's ravens."
It was now getting dark, and as he spoke, Himilco moved off to his post upon the prow, and I took up my watch upon the stern. All that night, and all the following day, the wind freshened till it blew a gale; being all in our favour, its violence caused me no alarm, but well-nigh all on board, conscious of being far away from land, and beholding nothing but sea and sky, were filled with terror; and as the ship at one moment was carried high upon the crests of the enormous waves, and at another was sunk low in what seemed an unfathomable abyss, they became almost paralysed with alarm; they lost their appetites entirely, and were incessant in their invocations to their gods. The gale next night increased to a hurricane, and on the morning shifted to the south, driving us to the north at the rate of 1800 stadia in a day.
Happily, although our ships were thus flying over the sea, they kept well together. Towards evening the wind dropped a little, and on the morning of the fourth day it was comparatively calm; the sky was very clear, and, to our vast delight, the man on watch at the top of the mast announced that land was in sight. I joined Himilco on the prow, and both of us could plainly distinguish in the sunlight the peaks of some snow-capped mountains. By the afternoon the view of land was plain to every one on board, and before the stars had risen, we were skirting a coast that seemed so rocky as to be inaccessible.
It was long past midnight before we could discover any anchorage at all; at last we found a small exposed bay where a river coursing along a bottom of white sand entered the sea. Towards the east, masses of thick woods could be made out, with snowy peaks of higher ridges rising up behind them. The Cabiros was hauled up on shore close to the river's mouth, and, the water in the bay being found sufficiently deep, the two galleys were moored to some of the great boulder-stones upon the beach. The coast was quite desolate, and there was no sign of human habitation.